Postcard from Christmas Island

While still in the rare post election 48 hour window when people, politicians past and present stray from the official party line speaking their minds, Alex Sloan spoke with Jon Stanhope, former ACT Chief Minister and now Administrator on Christmas Island.

Mr Stanhope has had a special vantage point during the election campaign while the two major parties competed with each other to present a case for who could come up with the toughest policies when it comes to Asylum seekers.

Speaking as a member of the Labor party, Mr Stanhope said he's been embarrassed and at times shamed by the performance of the Federal Labour party over the last few years.

"Not [embarrassed] by Julia Gillard but by her collegues - by the lack of loyalty, by the bitter disunity and by the quite deliberate destabilisation and the backstabbing that really has characterised the last three years," he said.

"It has for those of us who have given our lives to the Labor party and will continue to do so, been an excruciating experience and been very difficult to endure."

Voting for loyalty not conviction

Mr Stanhope revealed that he would remain a member of the Labor party, despite the experience of the past three years.

"I voted Labor of course, but I voted out of sheer loyalty not out of conviction. I don't believe the Labor party has anyone to blame but themselves for the result," he told Alex Sloan.

Mr Stanhope conceded he is still very much concerned by a "lack of genuine acceptance for the nature and the cause of the defeat."

Although a loyal member, Mr Stanhope said that reflecting on his party, not on Labor Government policy or policies of the new Government.

"As a Labor member, the willingness with which we lurched to the right, the willingness and the eagerness and uniformity of the lurch to the right on asylum seekers has scared me and I don't know how the Labor party is going to unburden itself of the position it has taken on asylum seekers and the Papua New Guinea solution."

Mr Stanhope admitted his belief is that Labor's position on asylum seekers will be held against the party for decades, suggesting the party abandoned a position of morality.

Coincidently, he said, "I've just watched a boat being unloaded this morning."